BNP to announce candidate for Mirza Fakhrul’s seat on 18 September

The BNP will announce its candidate for the by-election to the parliamentary seat vacated by President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on 18 September, BNP Acting Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said today (12 September).

The party’s nomination board will finalise the candidate at a meeting on 18 September, he said after a meeting of the BNP’s highest policymaking body in Gulshan, Dhaka.

The by-election to the seat is scheduled for 29 October.

Potential candidates will be able to collect nomination forms from the BNP’s Nayapaltan office on 15 September and submit the completed forms on 16 September, Rizvi said.

The nomination board will then meet on 18 September to select the party’s final candidate for the by-election.

The meeting, chaired by BNP Chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, began at 7pm at the party chairman’s political office in Gulshan.

The meeting was the first of the committee after four new members were appointed.

The BNP has also decided to consider assigning vacant organisational posts to leaders from the immediate next tier of the respective committees, in line with the party’s constitution.

Rizvi said several posts in the party’s committees had become vacant as members had died, been expelled or were no longer associated with the party.

“We will consider, in accordance with the provisions of the party’s constitution, whether those who are in the immediate next tier of the respective committees can be assigned responsibility for the vacant posts,” he said.

He said vacancies had also emerged at district and upazila levels, and the standing committee discussed filling those positions and other organisational matters.

Rizvi said the meeting also discussed various other issues and that details of the discussions would be released in writing.